EOS: EXPLORING SYMBOLS FOR EOS

Reason

The purpose of this post is to explore the history of currency symbols beginning with 'E' and evaluate EOS's best options from the ASCII codes that are available.

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Information

I want to start with revisiting a post @trogdor made about @dantheman's announcement of EOS.

EOS has a token called EOS, which works on the same principles as Steem. Unlike other systems there are no fees, it's not consumed. If you own 1% of the network, you have access to 1% of the computational power, 1% of the bandwidth, and 1% of the network storage. You can then lease it out to other parties or use it for your own app. Once you fund your app with enough EOS to support its usage, you don't have to worry about topping it off or paying any fees, because it's an "own" model, rather than a "rental" model.

Source: @trogdor

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What Does EOS Represent?

EOS role in the history of the blockchain will be a crucial one. It can serve as a tool to make new decentralized apps and organizations. It also has the ability to be a decentralized supercomputer and help anyone be a stake holder in network bandwidth.

EOS coin holders are going to have slices of future decentralized businesses, global networking, and global computing resources.

The symbols that best represent this would be something to communicate "having a small slice of a lot dapps, networks, and computing." An image that help people feel like a little was a lot with the least amount of graphics possible.

Ƀelieve It Or Not

It is beneficial to revisit the debate of using Ƀ versus ฿.

The designer and co founder of HashRabbit (cloud mining), Melissa Volkmann, made the excellent case that a currency symbol needs to be easy on the eye, available as an ASCII code, and also easy to write. Volkmann also noted in the following graphic that the symbol associated with Bitcoin now wasn't the original symbol chosen by Satoshi.

source: Volkmann

Volkmann's other argument is that bitcoin apps have chosen the second and third iteration of the symbol, and even made their own versions of the Bitcoin icon. This may be the result of the free market, but as far as a new user is concerned, it could lead to confusion and be a pain point, that makes the new technology harder to digest.

Volkmann also points out that the ฿ symbol was already chosen to represent the Thai Baht. Here are her thoughts on hijacking another countries currency symbol.

Facts: The baht (sign: ฿; code: THB) is the currency of Thailand. Thailand’s population is 67 million people (vs. Bitcoin’s debated 1–4 million users) and they’re not really cool with the community trying to “steal” their sign.

source: Volkmann

While it may be convenient to allow any Dapp, network computing company, or networking company the freedom of choosing the logos and color schemes they want, a long term view shows that this open approach could lead to a chaotic representation of the EOS ecosystem. If a user is used to the feel of the EOS logo and brand colors, should they feel the same when they see EOS Dapps?

The EOS design community will benefit from having a design guide document for the future EOS Dapps and businesses in to ensure all EOS products look and feel like they are part of the same family. A great example of this can be seen in the human interface guidelines Apple has published.

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Other 'E' Currencies And Cryptocurrencies

Here is a partial list (the full list is here) of other countries with a currency name starting with 'e' that are already associated to nations:

Currencies

-Ekwele

-Escudo ($)

-Euro(€)

Cryptocurrencies

-Emercoin

-Ethereum (Ξ)

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Easy To Draw

Volkmann had a strong argument for using Ƀ as it only took two strokes to write.

Here are some characters that are easy and pull from the themes mentioned in the post along with the current logo being used.

• ▲ (ALT+30)
• ◬
• ◈
• ❖
• ε (ALT+238)
• E◈S
• ♥ (ALT+3)

The epsilon seems attractive as it only takes one stroke to draw.

Usage: ε4.35 , ε0.0, ε.98359, ε78,906

Video of Usage:

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Revisit The Chestahedron

@dan has encouraged me to revisit the chestahedron based on the history behind the shape used for the EOS logo.

In the story of the creation of the chestahedron, sculptor Frank Chester talks about how he discovered the chestahedron.

Mr. Chester had the idea of putting his rounded seven-sided shape on its axis into a vortex generator, a tank of spinning water. If he put the shape in straight down, the original vortex is undisturbed. But when he puts the shape in at the angle of 36 degrees and keeps it spinning with an electric drill, the shape of the first swirl of water is changed. It forms a sort of pocket on the side. Mr. Chester made a model of what he saw in that interaction, cut a cross section of that model, and sure enough, it looks just like a dissection of the human heart.

source: http://www.motherworld.net/chestahedron/remarkable.html

With this in mind, I will add another symbol that is universally recognized by all cultures. Since humans understand that the heart circulates life throughout the human body, it will be easy to see how EOS token is vital to the decentralized ecosystem that will soon come.

The heart only requires holding ALT and pressing the number three. This is a peculiar coincidence with the research that shows there is brain tissue in three areas of the human body: brain, heart, and stomach.

Usage: ♥0.8675309 , ♥19.99, ♥159,645.04, ♥0.786

Video of Usage:

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Wrap Up

I hope this post can start discussions and posts around how EOS will be presented to future users who will be using it. There should be special consideration to every way the currency will be used and referenced so the usability is seamless and reflects the ethos of EOS.

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Additional Sources:

• https://unsplash.com/@faranak_v26
• http://www.motherworld.net